Stealers Wheel – "Star" (1973)

You breeze through the door

And when you take the floor

You expect to have it all to yourself

If anyone out there knows why Joe Egan and Gerry Rafferty named their band “Stealers Wheel,” please let me know.  I’ve just spent the better part of the evening on the Internet trying to figure that out, but none of the possible explanations I came across seemed the least bit plausible.  (By “better part of the evening,” I mean about ten minutes – I’ve got a little touch of the ol’ ADHD, so it seemed like much longer.)

I’m sure you’re familiar with Stealers Wheel’s big 1973 hit, “Stuck in the Middle with You.”  (Even if you’re too young to have heard it on the radio, you might remember it from Quentin Tarantino’s 1992 movie, Reservoir Dogs, where it was used to accompany a particularly violent scene.)

But do you remember Stealers Wheel’s follow-up single, “Star”?  It reached #29 on the Billboard “Hot 100” chart in 1973, but I would swear on a stack of Bibles that I never heard it until about a year ago.

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“Star” is a sing-alongable little ditty about a musician who’s kind of a big deal.  His “head’s in a cloud” and his “feet [are] off the ground” because every time he appears on stage, “there’s a standing ovation” for him.  He really is “the biggest sensation.”

But fans are fickle, and the song ends by posing this question to Mr. Star:

Tell me what will you do

When you find yourself back

On the shelf?

“Star” may not be the most profound song you’ve ever heard, but it does make its point.

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Click here to listen to “Star.”

Click here to buy it from Amazon.